Funeral Director Cleared Of Charge

Had Refused To Embalm Body In 1988

TORRINGTON — A state board has cleared a local funeral home director of wrongdoing for refusing to embalm a dead man six years ago because he thought the body was infected with AIDS.

The Connecticut Board of Examiners of Embalmers and Funeral Directors voted Thursday to dismiss a charge against undertaker Timothy Driscoll that he had violated state law by refusing to embalm the body of Charles Begin in 1988. The charge was brought by the state Department of Public Health and Addiction Services, which regulates funeral home directors and embalmers.

``We found no wrongdoing on his part,'' Morton L. Weinstein, the board's chairman, said Friday.

For Driscoll, the board's ruling ends years of defending himself in a variety of proceedings. Begin's family had bought a civil suit against Driscoll in 1991 in Litchfield Superior Court, but a judge vacated some of the charges against him and a jury dismissed the lawsuit.

``I'm just happy the damn thing is over,'' said Driscoll, a former city council member. ``They tried to get their 30 pieces of silver in Litchfield Superior Court and their pound of flesh at the health department and it didn't work. And I've cleared my good name.''

Begin, a 35-year-old welder, died of cocaine intoxication June 20, 1988, according to his death certificate. At the 1991 civil trial, Driscoll testified that he had refused to touch Begin's body because he thought the dead man had acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

The state health department had argued that once Driscoll had agreed to accept Begin's body for funeral preparations, he was obligated to carry out professional services requested by the Begin family. Weinstein, however, said the board concluded that Driscoll agreed only to move Begin's body from the state medical examiner's office to his mortuary, and to provide a casket for it.

``Mr. Begin's brother, Ransford Begin, had testified before the board that he had contacted the funeral home to move the body,'' Weinstein said. ``That was the only service that was contracted for at that time. The next day [Ransford Begin] drove down from Maine to Connecticut and contacted Mr. Driscoll again to discuss further arrangements. There was nothing agreed to at that particular time. Therefore Mr. Driscoll had never agreed to embalm the body.''

Driscoll also had attempted to help the Begin family by trying to find another embalmer for the body, Weinstein said. Driscoll had testified that he had contacted at least two other embalmers, but they also had refused to perform the service.

Driscoll said an unidentified person in the state medical examiner's office told him Charles Begin's body was infected with AIDS. The identity of the informant has never been made clear.